Heritage of Dover hosts Cupid’s chocolate cook-off

Heritage at Dover hosted the Cupid's chocolate cook off on Wednesday. Fourteen different dishes were entered for judging.

By Sarah Barbansarah.barban@doverpost.com

Cupid, also known as 6-year-old St. John’s student Alexis Brown, made an appearance at Heritage at Dover on Wednesday and brought the fifth and sixth grade class with her to help judge Heritage’s Cupid Chocolate cook-off.

The St. John’s judges were joined by Heritage residents and Dover Post reporter Sarah Barban. Fourteen different chocolate dishes had been prepared by Heritage staff and were judged based on four criteria: taste, appearance, originality and best use of chocolate.

The competition was stiff with several crowd favorites holding their own.

“That is just delicious looking,”Heritage resident Mary Alice Miller said upon seeing dish number four, “Chocolate Lovers in a Pot.”

The “wonderful walnut caramel brownie muffins” were also a hit. The chewy chocolate muffin was topped with rich caramel frosting and finished off with chopped walnuts. The turtle-inspired dish left judges wanting more.

“Could I get another one of those,” said Heritage resident Mary Ann Teller.

Several of the contest entries were chocolate classics such as chocolate dipped strawberries and chocolate cream pie. While other entries put a new spin on old favorites, such as the seven-layer brownies, which featured butterscotch chips, coconut, a brownie crust and chocolate chips.

The classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter also made several appearances in the competition including the chocolate peanut butter mousse, chocolate peanut butter bars topped with chopped peanut butter cups and chocolate peanut butter “sexy fudge.”

Other entries focused on the chocolate factor, such as the double fudge cookies, chocolate dough studded with chocolate chips or the Ghirardelli brownies, which were chewy chocolate brownies loaded with chopped Ghirardelli chocolate.

Kyla Teed, recreation director for Heritage at Dover was still stinging from a second-place finish in Heritage’s pumpkin cook-off in October. She entered her “beautiful black forest cake” hoping that it would earn her the top spot.

After 14 dishes, the judges were looking a little jittery and rather full. As the staff tallied the scores the judges shared their thoughts.

“I feel full,” said Brice Taylor, one of the St. John’s Lutheran School student judges. “It was all very good, but I’m probably done with chocolate for a least a few days.”

Some of the judges were looking for something to cut the sweetness after all of that chocolate.

“What I could use right now is a good cup of black coffee,” said Teller.

After all of the scores were added up, Kyla Teed once again found herself in second place, while Minerva Yoesoep won the day with her “chocolate lovers in a pot” cake.

“It’s something that I’ve always made,” she said. “It was introduced to me by an old friend. I was really excited, I didn’t expect to win.”